Follow-Up to My UFO Digest Article on Zecharia Sitchin

I’ve gotten several emails about this article published by UFO Digest. I had blogged about it in the previous post, recommending that readers send notes of appreciation to UFO Digest (and I still recommend that). I recommend that readers also go to the link and read through the comments. It’s the usual ad hominem stuff, but not too bad, really. Let me address a few points, as they take little mental energy.

1. On the charge of “Christian bias” – Well, that’s brilliant. Somehow, not being a Christian pre-disposes a person to greater objectivity. Hmmm. That sounds scientific and “objective” for sure. Actually, anyone who really can think well knows that *complete* objectivity is a myth. Everyone has some bias. In this case, I never brought up anyone’s religion or conclusions drawn from it. This is something fundamentalist Sitchinites just cannot grasp (is it because of their own bias or just poor thinking skills?). Look at the points in my article. Each one of them has nothing to do with a bias. They are all of the “either it’s factual and conforming to reality or it isn’t” type. If Sitchin had ever submitted his work to peer review, then my assertion would be wrong. If one could find his “rocket ship” terminology in Mesopotamian lexical lists (their own dictionaries for crying out loud), then I’d be wrong. If SItchin has real academic credentials in these languages, then I’d be wrong. So my response to the fundamentalist Sitchinite is clear and easy: put up the data or shut up. I’ve been issuing this challenge since 2001 to Sitchin himself, and he has said nothing (basically because he’s a lot smarter than his defenders).

2. Just what is a “Christian bias” anyway? Maybe one of these clear thinkers can explain what it is, especially since I’ve publicly said (for years – on that thing called the Internet) that I don’t care theologically one way or the other if there are aliens and if they’ve come here. This entire blog is devoted to being yet another public forum to express that. (It isn’t just another online space to be ignored by Stanton Friedman and Ryan Wood in their search for the facts about me).

3. I guess these astute commenters never visited the links provided by UFO Digest to my blogs, especially PaleoBabble, where I take on CHRISTIANS who have ideas as nutty as Sitchin and expose THEM as well (imagine that – feels like objectivity). That would have taken a mouse click or two (or maybe a Google search), so it might have been too much to ask.

4. Defeating what I say should be SUPER EASY if I am wrong. All the fundamentalist Sitchinite needs to do are things like these:

a. Produce academic credentials for Sitchin in the ancient languages.

b. Produce a peer-reviewed source (like the people Sitchin cites) actually taking his positions on his alien explanations/mythology.

c. Show me one line of one cuneiform text that has Nibiru as a planet beyond Pluto.

d. Show me one line of one cuneiform text that has Nibiru cycling through our solar system every 3600 years.

e. Show me one line of one cuneiform text that has Nibiru as inhabited by the Anunnaki, or that has the Anunnaki “riding” in it since it might be a spaceship (!)

f. Show me one line of one cuneiform text that has the Sumerians or Akkadians understanding there were more planets beyond Saturn.

That’ll do for now. For all you readers out there, THIS is how to reply to fundamentalist Sitchinites. If they cannot produce data that actually exists — and existence isn’t a bias (!) — then you can ignore them.

You see, what followers of Sitchin really have is a new religion. They take everything Sitchin says on faith, nothing more. He wrote it down so it must be true. Real intellectual rigor there. On the contrary, my own “bias” has directed me to study at places and in programs that diametrically disagree with my Christianity. Why would I do that? (And many Christians have asked, thinking I’m tainted). Simple. I’m not afraid of facts wherever they might be found. My Bible tells me God is the source of ALL truth, not just what’s in the Bible, so I want to find it and know it and sift it from any source. But you can just snuggle up to Sitchin for the warm fuzzies he gives you. Continuing to do so means you’ll miss a lot of truth from a lot of different places in your effort to harden your heart against Christianity. It’s pretty pitiful to be so narrow-minded (or … biased).